totally out of control'', says former Bank of Bermuda president Mr. Donald Lines.

And the present "unfortunate'' climate is not one in which to decide the issue, Mr. Lines told The Royal Gazette in his first public comments during the lead-up to Tuesday's referendum.

Citing concerns about the possible loss of Bermuda's tax treaty with the United States, as well as loss of exempted company business, Mr. Lines said the risks outweighed the benefits in favour of a "no'' vote on August 15.

Mr. Lines, who retired as president and chief executive officer of the Bank of Bermuda in 1994, was responding to Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan, who yesterday repeated an earlier charge that it was "a banker'' who first placed Independence "on the agenda'' after the 1993 general election.

At the time, Sir John said Mr. Lines was trying to arrange air routes to Bermuda from Germany but the British "told him their position is very clear'' that the United Kingdom would not sanction any such service.

And Mr. Lines had complained to the Hon. Quinton Edness, who was Acting Premier at the time, Sir John said. "Let's put the record straight.'' But when contacted yesterday, Mr. Lines said the Premier's account of events was only partly accurate.

He had visited London to meet with BA chairman Sir Colin Marshall about improving the frequency of BA service to Bermuda from London, and that visit had been successful, he said.

Any comments he made related to Independence "had nothing to do with air routes'', Mr. Lines said. He had at various times expressed frustration with the way he had been "dispensed with'' by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London when he met with UK officials about other matters.

"Their approach is back in colonial times,'' said Mr. Lines, who had mused publicly about the need to explore Independence while he still held his banker's role.

But it was ridiculous to say he had placed Independence on the agenda, Mr.

Lines said.

"To put it bluntly, they're looking for anyone to blame for offering it,'' he said. "If the emotion was taken out of it, we could look at this thing coldly and calculatedly, which is what this all started off as.

"To get this bitterness that's gone into it, with these accusations flying at everybody, is not only unfortunate, it's almost childish, and I think that's unnecessary.'' Mr. Lines felt it was healthy to examine Independence in a dispassionate way, and he could understand the importance it held for many blacks in particular.

He was "Bermudian through and through'' and had no particular ties to Britain.

But in weighing the pros and cons, he felt they tilted in favour of a "no'' vote.

While the Premier has "quite rightly'' taken credit for negotiating a 1988 tax treaty with the United States that was "very important to Bermuda,'' Mr.

Lines said he was "very worried that we would lose it'' if Bermuda went Independent.

"The fact that he authored it doesn't say that it automatically continues if we have Bermudian Independence,'' Mr. Lines said.

He was afraid Bermuda could lose the treaty -- which is credited with stopping the loss of American business in Bermuda to Barbados -- through lost bargaining strength.

"These issues were not properly addressed in the Green Paper that was put out (on Independence), and these are issues that are more important to the people of Bermuda,'' Mr. Lines said.